There are only two known survivors of the 1906 earthquake that devastated San Francisco more than a century ago. Friday, San Francisco’s fire chief made a special visit to the North Bay to celebrate the 108th birthday of one of those survivors.

A lot can change in 108 years. Friends and family members have come and gone, and he has watched the San Francisco that burned in the earthquake more than a century ago, when he was just three months old, rebuild and transform.

“It wasn’t too much of a city then, but it sure is now,” Del Monte said.

Del Monte never had children, and his wife died more than 20 years ago.

He now lives in a retirement home in Greenbrae. That’s where San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White met him on Friday for lunch, catered by John’s Grill.

Over some steaks and a glass of scotch, Del Monte recalled his mother’s memory of the moments after the 1906 quake, when he was just a baby.

"My mother in the kitchen, she put the table cloth around me, wrapped it around me as a bundle, and put me on a cart and went we down Broadway Street to the ferry," Del Monte said. “There was fire on both sides of the street.”

Hayes-White said Del Monte is not just a connection to San Francisco’s past. He reminds us all how to live a long, satisfying life.

“Just his love for life, living day by day, not taking things for granted, but just appreciating life in the moment,” Hayes-White said. “He gives me that. He’s a true gift.”

As for a secret to longevity, Del Monte said, there is no real secret. He’s just taking life as it comes.